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Topic: String Length - Scale |
Rick Collins
From:
Claremont , CA USA
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Posted 26 Jul 2000 3:25 pm |
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I request from steelers who have had some experience with various steel string lengths to please respond to this:
I have considerable experience with Fender stringmaster steels with, 22&1/2", 24&1/2", and 26" scale lengths. I much prefer the 26" length for it's tonal properties, all other things being equal. Disregarding bar slants does anyone see it this way? By the way, I don't find bar slants a lot more difficult on the 26" scale.
Rick |
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C Dixon
From:
Duluth, GA USA
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Posted 26 Jul 2000 3:52 pm
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The longer the scale, the longer the sustain.
Most people including myself find it more difficult to slant quickly, on the lower numbered frets on the longer scales.
carl |
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Bob Stone
From:
Gainesville, FL, USA
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Posted 27 Jul 2000 5:17 am
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I play short scale guitars and don't have much experience with long scale instruments. Howevever, a recent visit with a veteran musician got my attention. Hawaiian steeler Dick Sanft, who retired a couple of years ago from playing 6 and 7 nights a week at the Disney Polynesian Resort in Orlando for nearly 20 years, plays a 4 neck Stringmaster 26-inch scale. He has fitted a piece of aluminum over each fretboard that functionally serves as the nut at the second fret, effectively converting the instrument to short scale. Besides making low-register slants cleaner, Dick said that "your tone, dynamics and sustain are all in your hands" and that the string tension on 26" strings was too tight for Hawaiian music.
By the way, Dick does not use a volume pedal and never did learn to do reverse slants. He's a great player. Interesting![This message was edited by Bob Stone on 27 July 2000 at 06:21 AM.] [This message was edited by Bob Stone on 27 July 2000 at 06:22 AM.] |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 27 Jul 2000 8:52 am
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Most of my lap steels have the 22.5 inch scale length. The exception is the 1937 Dobro electric lap steel, which has a 26 inch scale length.
I do find it somewhat harder to play slants on the lower end of the neck, but it's one of the best sounding guitars I have. Whether that's due to the scale length, the aluminum body, the pickup or some combination of all of these is hard to say.
------------------
Brad's Page of Steel:
www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars
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George Keoki Lake
From:
Edmonton, AB., Canada
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Posted 28 Jul 2000 8:13 am
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It's been a few years since I last played with Dick Sanft. He's a very fine steel guitarist without any doubt. When I last saw him, he was sporting a slim moustache and the similarity between him and Dick McIntire was striking! Sanft, as you mentioned Bob,
doesn't use a vol. pedal and I have never seen him playing reverse slants...for that matter, I seldom play them either. I have no preferance between long and short scale models...just a matter of adapting. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 22 May 2010 9:23 am
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| Beyond the first fret, there's little difference between scale lengths, so there would only be a difference in slants where the slant involved the first fret or an open string. |
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